THE FRENCH AND SPANIARDS ABANDON PIEDMONT AND THE MILANESE.

The campaign in Italy was altogether unfavourable to the French and Spaniards. The house of Austria being no longer pressed on the side of Germany, was enabled to make the stronger efforts in this country; and the British subsidy encouraged the king of Sardinia to act with redoubled vivacity. Mareschal Maillebois occupied the greater part of Piedmont with about thirty thousand men. Don Philip and the count de Gages were at the head of a greater number in the neighbourhood of Milan; and the duke of Modena, with eight thousand, secured his own dominions. The king of Sardinia augmented his forces to six-and-thirty thousand; and the Austrian army, under the prince of Lichtenstein, amounted to a much greater number; so that the enemy were reduced to the necessity of acting on the defensive, and retired towards the Mantuan. In February, baron Leutrum, the Piedmontese general, invested and took the strong fortress of Aste. He afterwards relieved the citadel of Alexandria, which the Spaniards had blocked up in the winter, reduced Casal, recovered Valencia, and obliged Maillebois to retire to the neighbourhood of Genoa. On the other side, Don Philip and count Gages abandoned Milan, Pavia, and Parma, retreating before the Austrians with the utmost precipitation to Placentia, where they were joined on the third of June by the French forces under Maillebois.

Before this junction was effected, the Spanish general Pignatelli had passed the river Po in the night with a strong detachment, and beaten up the quarters of seven thousand Austrians posted at Codogno. Don Philip, finding himself at the head of two-and-fifty thousand men by his junction with the French general, resolved to attack the Austrians in their camp at San Lazaro, before they should be reinforced by his Sardinian majesty. Accordingly, on the fourth day of June, in the evening, he marched with equal silence and expedition, and entered the Austrian trenches about eleven, when a desperate battle ensued. The Austrians were prepared for the attack, which they sustained with great vigour till morning. Then they quitted their intrench-ments, and charged the enemy in their turn with such fury, that after an obstinate resistance the combined army was broke, and retired with precipitation to Placentia, leaving on the field fifteen thousand men killed, wounded, and taken, together with sixty colours and ten pieces of artillery. In a few weeks the Austrians were joined by the Piedmontese; the king of Sardinia assumed the chief command; and prince Lichtenstein being indisposed, his place was supplied by the marquis de Botta. Don Philip retired to the other side of the Po, and extended his conquests in the open country of the Milanese. The king of Sardinia called a council of war, in which it was determined that he should pass the river with a strong body of troops, in order to straiten the enemy on one side; while the marquis de Botta should march up the Tydone, to cut off their communication with Placentia. They forthwith quitted all the posts they had occupied between the Lambro and Adda, resolving to repass the Po and retreat to Tortona. With, this view they threw bridges of boats over that river, and began to pass on the ninth day of August in the evening. They were attacked at Rotto Freddo by a detachment of Austrians, under general Serbelloni, who maintained the engagement till ten in the morning, when Botta arrived; the battle was renewed with redoubled rage, and lasted till four in the afternoon, when the enemy retired in great disorder to Tortona, with the loss of eight thousand men, a good number of colours and standards, and eighteen pieces of cannon. This victory cost the Austrians four thousand men killed upon the spot, including the gallant general Bernclau. The victors immediately summoned Placentia to surrender; and the garrison, consisting of nine thousand men, were made prisoners of war; Don Philip continued his retreat, and of all his forces brought six-and-twenty thousand only into the territories of Genoa.

THE AUSTRIANS TAKE POSSESSION OF GENOA. COUNT BROWN ENTERS PROVENCE.

The Piedmontese and Austrians rejoining in the neighbourhood of Pavia, advanced to Tortona, of which they took possession without resistance, while the enemy sheltered themselves under the cannon of Genoa. They did not long continue in this situation; for on the twenty-second day of August they were again in motion, and retired into Provence. The court of Madrid imputing the bad success of this campaign to the misconduct of count Gages, recalled that general, and sent the marquis de las Minas to resume the command of the forces. In the meantime, the victorious confederates appeared before Genoa on the fourth day of December; and the senate of that city thinking it incapable of defence, submitted to a very mortifying capitulation, by which the gates were delivered up to the Austrians, together with all their arms, artillery, and ammunition; and the city was subjected to the most cruel contributions. The marquis de Botta being left at Genoa with sixteen thousand men, the king of Sardinia resolved to pass the Var, and pursue the French and Spaniards into Provence; but that monarch being seized with the small-pox, the conduct of this expedition was entrusted to count Brown, an Austrian general of Irish extract, who had given repeated proofs of uncommon valour and capacity. He was on this occasion assisted by vice-admiral Medley, who commanded the British squadron in the Mediterranean. The French forces had fortified the passes of the Var, under the conduct of the mareschal de Belleisle, who thought proper to abandon his posts at the approach of count Brown; and this general, at the head of fifty thousand men, passed the river without opposition, on the ninth day of November. While he advanced as far as Draguignan, laying the open country under contribution, baron Both, with four-and-twenty battalions, invested Antibes, which was at the same time bombarded on the side of the sea by the British squadron. The trenches were opened on the twentieth day of September; but Belleisle having assembled a numerous army, superior to that of the confederates, and the Genoese having expelled their Austrian guests, count Brown abandoned the enterprise, and repassed the Var, not without some damage from the enemy.